Coaches tend to refer to every away ground as a tough place to go, but Gloucester have been obliging and accommodating hosts this season, losing 60% of their matches before the visit of a side that has earned the right to include the Heineken Cup on its crest. Munster duly made it to the quarter-finals for the umpteenth time, but at least the home faithful saw their team fight rather than capitulate.

So much for this being Castle Grim, other than the statistics making dispiriting reading for the home supporters. Munster did have to work harder for their points than Saracens had to last week and a full house gave Gloucester a rousing reception, healthy though the size of the visiting contingent was.

Gloucester applied the early pressure, Ian Keatley beating Dan Robson to the ball after Jonny May's chip to the Munster line, but Billy Twelvetrees missed a 40-metre penalty and the home side, in a summary of the season, struggled in the set pieces and made a series a lamentable unforced errors, such as Matt Cox taking a drop-out literally rather than actually and spilling the ball with no one in tackling distance while Freddie Burns's restart after Munster's opening try failed to go 10 metres.

If Gloucester veered from the abject to the inspired – Charlie Sharples started a counterattack from near his own line in a manner that invoked memories of Phil Bennett in a Barbarians' jersey 40 years before – Munster were more consistent, not veering from their gameplan and held secure by the boot of Keatley.

There is such a surfeit of aimless kicking in the game that Keatley's ability to find space behind the full-back and wing, happy for the ball to go into touch with Gloucester's lineout success nowhere near 100%. The outside-half played a central role in the opening try of the match on 33 minutes after a series of drives by the Munster forwards, led by Paul O'Connell and Tommy O'Donnell, had taken Munster into the home 22.

Keatley, spotting the defence had taken a high line, chipped the ball 10 metres and Keith Earls, who was sharp all evening, was so quick to collect the bounce that the nearest defender to him, Twelvetrees, attempted an ankle tap in despair rather than hope.

Keatley gave Munster a feeling of control that Gloucester lacked, even during their periods of dominance at the start of each half. The Irish province was seeking to make the quarter-finals for a record 15th time and, building on a foundation established up front, used O'Connell, Peter O'Mahony and Dave Foley, a second-row who tested the tolerance threshold of the referee with a series of robust challenges.

Gloucester could not match Munster's abrasiveness, and although they scored a try just before half-time when Robson put Matt Kvesic into space and Sharples stepped out of challenges by Johne Murphy and Keatley, thanks in part to a block by Kvesic after he had passed to the wing.

Twelvetrees had missed two penalties so Munster led by three points at the interval and showed, in the 10 minutes after play resumed, why their record in Europe is so impressive even though they barely touched the ball. Gloucester mounted a series of attacks and, occasionally, got the ball away swiftly from the breakdown.

Burns went through his passing repertoire, short and long, delayed and immediate, but Munster held firm, led by O'Connell who twice won his side scrums with choke tackles. The home side brought on Ben Morgan and Sione Kalamafoni to add thrust, but the former made a hash of picking the ball out of a scrum and Munster, after soaking up pressure, showed how to use position.

O'Mahony forced his way over from a scrum and Keatley kicked his second penalty in a nine-minute spell to book another date in the last eight. Gloucester showed more spirit and fight than of late, but they were still a distant second.